After scouting, we circled back around to get our chosen site and when we passed the rangers again I noticed they were looking up towards the hill the campsite backed up against. So as we started to set up the tent, I told Jill "There has to be something over there, they are definitely on alert about something."
I grabbed my camera, threw my big lens on and then headed that direction. Getting closer, I heard people talking and then saw exactly what I suspected, a bear. This black bear was CLOSE to a tent site, but he was just munching on bushes and berries and showed no interest in any of the people. Nevertheless, the rangers have to chase the bear away to keep any incidents from occurring.
The bear excitement quickly dissipated as the ranger brought out the bean-bag shotgun. She never even had to fire a shot, simply the sound of her loading it up was enough to entice Yogi to scurry up the hill out away from the campsite. I'm guessing he'd been subjected to a bean bag to the butt before.
The next morning, we woke up and headed back south to Yellowstone and then Grand Teton to split up the big drive again. Despite our relentless searching, we failed to find any more grizzlies in Yellowstone, evidently just missing a mother and two cubs. We did get to see a huge bull moose lounging near a stream with a huge crowd of onlookers snapping pics.
A quiet night in Grand Teton, an early morning and 8 hours of driving had us back to Boulder County by 2 or 3pm on Saturday. Tired, definitely ready to be out of the car, but quite happy to have had another chance to get out and take hold of life helps us cope with the mundane life of us holding down desk jobs.
What's up next? Yosemite seems like the next big trip, but we might think about the 30 mile Teton Crest Trail too given Grand Teton's relatively close proximity to us. And of course we've also got Rocky Mountain in extremely close proximity, and we are far, far away from exhausting all it has to offer.
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